‘Race Card’ Accusation at the Center of Racially Charged ‘Bachelorette’

Kenny Layne and Lee Garrett have been feuding for weeks on The Bachelorette, and it just won’t end! On Monday night’s episode, things escalated even further when Lee suggested Kenny had played the “race card.”

Kenny was upset with Lee for telling Rachel that he was being “aggressive” with him. So Will tried to explain to Lee that calling an African-American man “aggressive” has a negative history. Will told Lee, “There is a longstanding history in this country of regarding black men in America as aggressive to justify a lot of other things.” Instead of taking that information and thinking about how his actions could be seen as offensive, Lee ignorantly pushed forward, saying, “So he’s the guy that gets mad and plays the race card, and tries to get away with everything he does because he can’t control himself.”

So when the guys were inevitably paired up on a two-on-one date, we knew sparks would fly. Before going on the date, Lee said, “My strategy for this date is to spark a flame, because there’s been a lot of sparks. I just want a flame. It feels good to be the one smiling when somebody’s really pissed off.” Once Lee got some alone time with Rachel, he broke out the matches and started making a fire of lies. He told her that Kenny has a dark side that only comes out when he’s drinking.

While we’ll still have to wait to see the exciting conclusion, Kenny’s reaction to what Lee said about him was priceless. Right before “To Be Continued…” popped up on screen, we saw Kenny walking back to Lee just laughing like he just heard the funniest joke ever.